Does anyone know the relationship between content and form in traditional dance creation? Please tell me quickly, thank you!

Any dance has two aspects: content and form. They depend on each other, restrict each other, penetrate each other and transform each other, each on the condition of each other's existence. They are a whole and two different aspects. Therefore, there may be such a phenomenon: when you are participating in a self-entertainment dance, you suddenly feel that the movement, rhythm and speed of this dance are not enough to express your inner passion; Sometimes I feel that my movements are too bold and unrestrained, the rhythm is too strong, and the speed is too fast, which is not commensurate with the mood at the moment. A similar situation will occur when you enjoy a dance performance. Sometimes I think the plot events are very touching, but I am not impressed after watching the performance. Sometimes I think the dance is gorgeous and spectacular, but I can't feel the touching content. This phenomenon is caused by the contradiction between dance form and content, which is manifested in the objective existence of content and form in dance works; On the one hand, it is * * * and * *, on the other hand, it plays different roles.

The content and form in dance works are composed of many elements, which are both related and different. To sum up, what is shown and written is the content of the work; How to express and write is the form of the work. Content is internal, and form is the concrete existence of appearance. There is such a passage in the first chapter of Yue Ji: "Every sound is born of human heart. When the heart moves, everything does its best. Emotion is moved by things, so it is shaped by sound. The sound is corresponding, so it changes and becomes a square, which is called sound. Listening to the sound is fun, and drying feathers is also fun. " It shows that the production of music and dance is first caused by the inner excitement caused by external things. The inner passion shows the melody, dance movements, rhythm, style, dance equipment and costumes of these contents through organized and regular music and dance movements, as well as the overall structure, genre and composition of all this. Content is the basis of the existence of form, but it can't be expressed without form.

Exploring the aesthetic characteristics of dance content and form and understanding the dialectical relationship between them are of great practical significance for improving dance art and realizing the unity of ideology and artistry.

Here, let's talk about the content of dance-emotion, meaning, things and things.

The remarkable feature of dance works is to reflect reality in the unity of phenomenon and essence. For example, the common works that reflect the content of productive labor in dance often describe a certain production process and labor action, but the focus of performance is not the action and process, but the mental outlook and mood of the workers. This is completely different from those scientific research contents that abandon the social significance of labor and people's thoughts and feelings in order to shorten the production process and improve labor efficiency, and only analyze the necessity, auxiliary and redundancy of labor actions. In previous dances, there have been two kinds of works: one is to express the process of productive labor, rather than to feel the strength, attitude and emotion of people in labor; The other is that it only shows an abstract idea and concept. It also lacks social phenomena related to its role. Generally, these two kinds of works lack the power to infect and inspire people because they cannot create vivid artistic images.

The content of dance works often comes from a certain part, fragment or side of life. These parts, fragments and profiles are the results of the artist's choice, generalization and refinement of life.

In the process of selecting and refining the content of works from life, dancers must have their own understanding and ideals about this life phenomenon and its essence; Have their own social ideal and aesthetic ideal standard. Therefore, the content of dance is not only the reappearance of objective reality, but also the ideological tendency and emotional color of the creator; Nor can it be the natural form of life, but the product of the transformation of the artist's subjective consciousness. Generally speaking, the content of dance works is composed of objective real life and the creator's subjective understanding and evaluation.

Because the dance content contains objective and subjective factors, it must be dynamic, developing and changing. The change of objective reality will inevitably lead to the change of dance content. However, authors with different positions and viewpoints may make completely different evaluations of the same reality, thus creating different artistic images in their works, which is common in dance works at all times and in all countries. This is also the class nature and sense of the times of dance content.

Subjective feelings, intentions, objective things and things are all reflected by various elements that constitute the dance content, such as theme, theme, characters and plot. In order to grasp the content of dance works in an all-round way, it is necessary to analyze these elements separately and investigate their mutual relations and functions in different genres of works.

Theme and theme are the basic components of dance works.

Let's start with the theme. The concept of theme is quite extensive, and people often use it in different meanings. For example, according to whether some life phenomena adapt to certain artistic characteristics, this is not a dance theme but a cartoon theme, a poem theme rather than a drama theme, and so on. Sometimes it is divided into "ancient theme", "modern theme" and "modern theme" in historical order; Or according to different life contents, they are respectively "industrial and agricultural theme", "military theme" and "love theme"; According to the nature of the content, it can also be divided into "myth theme", "science fiction theme" and "reality theme". Theme, generally called the content element of a work, refers to some life phenomena expressed in the work. As the theme of dance works, some life phenomena may be directly taken from real life or fictional; It can be real or it can be the product of fantasy. For example, in the dance Cormorant, the old fisherman is realistic, but the cormorant is virtual. The creative motivation of Dunhuang colored sculptures comes from the feelings of real life, but the image born is the sublimation of imagination, which shows people's thoughts and feelings and the beauty of ancient women, while the characters are illusory. This fictional life phenomenon, or the interweaving of reality and fiction, is more common in dance works. Fiction or the combination of fiction and reality comes from life. It is a dancer who directly or indirectly chooses, fictionalizes and organizes some life phenomena according to her own observation, experience and understanding of life and her own creative intention, thus forming the performance object of her own work. This is the theme.

Theme is the basis of shaping image and refining theme. Therefore, the choice of theme is an important link in the creative process. Generally speaking, dance themes require typical, true and "high-capacity" characteristics, especially novelty and originality. The stereotyped and generalized dance themes should also have different characteristics due to different genres. For example, a short lyric dance, the theme is often just a moment or a fragment in the life scene, there is no specific event conflict, or even a specific identity. In narrative dance, especially in the creation of dance drama, it is required to take the characters as the center, with specific plots, conflicts and actions, and the subject matter is naturally much richer and more complicated.

When choosing a theme, we should guard against two kinds of bias. One is the one-sided emphasis on the restriction of the theme on the content of the work and the expression of the so-called major theme, that is, "theme determinism". Another prejudice is that it does not recognize any differences in subject matter, which is not in line with reality. Different themes exist objectively, and different life phenomena have different social meanings, including infection and education. Therefore, we can't rank among topics, let alone limit the diversity of topics. The diversification of themes is an inevitable reflection of colorful real life.

Through the artistic treatment of the theme, the central idea becomes the theme of the work.

Theme is the soul and core of the work, which plays a commanding role in the creative process and is the main factor that constitutes the ideological level of dance works. It contains the meaning of the theme itself and the ideal of the creator. It's an artist's condensed view on the observation, analysis and research of life phenomena, and it's what dancers want to tell others in dancing.

The theme in dance works is not expressed by language, words or slogans, but embodied in the image of the works. "The more concealed the author's point of view, the more favorable it is to the works of art" (Engels: to Ma Harkness), especially in dance works. Yunnan Dai dance "Water" and "Chasing Fish" did not explain their creative intention in any form, but the audience experienced lively natural vitality and intoxicating life interest. On the contrary, some dance works that only add some slogans or text descriptions to point out the theme are often not accepted by the audience, which is worth pondering and thinking: the added ideas cannot form the theme of the works.

"Theme" has its own way of existence in different artistic varieties and genres. In dance (especially short lyric dance), the theme is often presented in some kind of "artistic conception" (or realm). This is similar to lyric short poems, so we often use "poetry" to express the central idea of dance works. "Territory is not the only scenery. Emotions and sorrows are also one of the realms in people's minds. Therefore, what can describe the scenery and true feelings is called the realm. Otherwise, it is called no realm. " (Wang Guowei: The Story of the World) What constitutes the central idea of the work is the true scenery, true feelings, and the high unity of subjectivity and objectivity. The theme of Korean dance "Green Mountains and Green Waters" praising labor and greening the motherland is contained in the artistic conception of that lush and thriving poem. There is also a certain central idea in the dance of entertaining oneself, or venting inner joy and anxiety, or expressing the unity between relatives and friends, or communicating the hearts of young men and women. In short, there is no dance art without theme.

Sometimes the same work may have multiple themes, which are called multi-theme works, and appear in dance dramas with complex contents and many characters. For example, in Rain on Silk Road, the first theme is to show the artistic creative spirit of ancient working people struggling hard in tragic circumstances; Friendship and cultural exchanges between Chinese and foreign people have become sub-themes.

The diversity of dance themes and themes adapts to people's diverse aesthetic needs. At the same time, a variety of theme ideas condense one of people's basic requirements for dance art-that is, to fully express human beauty-the beauty of human nature, human feelings, moral quality, personality will, physical strength, lines, harmony, symmetry, flexibility, lightness and so on. In many traditional folk dances, it seems to be a single emotional expression without profound ideological content, but it fully shows a certain aspect of national character or some kind of beautiful and kind life feeling, which is the direct embodiment of the above requirements in the works. Dance works also have natural beauty, but its essence is to express people's understanding and mastery of nature and praise people's intelligent beauty; There are ugly things in society and nature, but ugliness can only be used as a foil and opposition in dance, which shows people's reverence for beauty and contempt for ugliness through comparison.

Another factor in the content of dance works is the "plot" in narrative dance and dance drama, also called story plot.

Dance works cannot be discussed, and its theme can only be vividly expressed through the movements of characters and the development process of events. Therefore, the plot is the main means to express the theme of dance. It is not a random combination of a series of accidental events, and it is not a random patchwork of bizarre phenomena. Plot is the life material experienced and refined by the author in his life, and it is formed by reasonable fiction and processing on the basis of real life. The plot of a dance work needs to be compact, concentrated and clearly prioritized. More importantly, every detail and every scene should closely focus on the theme of the work, and play a role in setting off, setting off and highlighting from many aspects, revealing the essence of life from all sides and showing the theme of the work.

The plot is also the character's "personality history, typical growth history and composition history". The center of narrative dance is to create typical characters with flesh and blood, and this task can also be realized through the plot. Typical plots should be the inevitable result of the development of characters' personalities, while atypical plots may distort the characters' images. For example, letting revolutionary martyrs dance the national standard dance on the execution ground is counterproductive to characterization.

Only if the plot is vivid and rich can it have a stronger appeal, especially for the audience in China who have a tradition of appreciating stories. The thrilling and fascinating storylines in The Journey to the West, The Water Margin and The Romance of the Three Kingdoms have been widely known for thousands of years, which shows people's appreciation hobbies. In the audience's reaction, sometimes you may not be able to quickly understand the theme of the work, but first quickly respond to the story: good or bad, interesting or boring. Boring works, they may no longer be interested in exploring their ideological content. We can also see the importance of the plot in the work.

Let's talk about the form of dance first: drum dance is the best.

In dance works, the content is expressed through certain artistic forms. "Happiness is in the ears, in the eyes. The sound should be audible; A face hidden in my heart is not good-looking, so the saint pretends to dry his feathers and show his face, looking down at his meaning. " (Zhu Zaiyu: The Essence of Music and Dance Can't Be Abolished) When the content of music and dance is contained in your heart, you can't see it or feel it. Only through various dance instruments and gestures can we perceive it from the appearance. There is no form and no content; Explain the significance of form in the practice of dance creation. From the aesthetic point of view, the reason why people need dance art lies in the aesthetic requirements of watching or experiencing the beauty of dance form.

Dance forms contain many factors, which exist in time and space and act on vision and hearing. Basically, it can be divided into two parts, one is the various factors of form and appearance, and the other is the internal structure combining these factors.

Judging from the appearance of dance, what is presented to the viewer's senses is mainly movement. Action is the language of dance art and the main form of dance. "Bend the pitch and compose the music to relieve the disease, and the music is also." The changes, formations, rhythms and rhythms of movements constitute the action image, which shows the character.

Dance movements are different from life movements; In specific works, it is also required to have a unique personality combined with unique content. First, it must be visual. The vividness of action does not mean the realistic simulation of life phenomena, but the revelation of the inner thoughts, emotions, personalities and psychological activities of the characters. The so-called "inspiring incisively and vividly" is to show the inner "God" incisively and vividly-aura, grace and spirit. This image has a relationship between "likeness" and "spirit likeness". The old man Baishi said: "The beauty of painting lies between similarity and dissimilarity. It's too kitsch to deceive the world. " The beauty of dance movements is also in this kind of "similarity and dissimilarity", and the rigid simulation loses the original meaning of dance; Without the prototype of things and the real foundation, it is impossible to talk about "likeness", but "likeness" is not an end, but an artistic realm of "likeness". For example, "peacock dance" captures some dynamic features of peacocks, but it does not focus on the natural movements of peacocks, which meets the requirements of "visualization" of dance. This is the case with objects, as well as narrative and lyrical actions. The reason why some dance works that copy the classroom movements unchanged lack lyrical and touching power is because such movements do not have such an image that is unified with the specific content.

What is related to visualization is the personalization of action. In dance works, quite a few movements are inherited from traditional dance movements, and some are even stylized movements. This phenomenon is not uncommon. Like oral language, the art forms of all ethnic groups also have their own traditional "language". Although it has changed and developed, it has never deviated from the traditional foundation. The same is true of dance language. The use of these languages in dance creation needs a personalized process. In China traditional opera and dance, when the same program action becomes the language of different roles, it will change according to the different personalities of men, women and children to adapt to "personality". Zhang Fei is different from Li Kui jy, and Song Wu is different from Huang Tianba, which is the individualization of action. This is true of narrative dance and lyric dance.

Dance movements also need distinctive styles. Style is an important aspect of the aesthetic function of dance art. Dance without distinctive national style, like "words without sentences", is bound to be "not far away". Of course, national style is not a simple action problem, but because of the particularity of dance art, action style plays a very key role in the formation of national style of dance works.

Another element of the external form of dance works is music. Music in dance is not only a form, but also a content factor. The dance melody itself has emotional content. Through the combination of the audience's auditory function and the visual form of action, * * * together constitutes the artistic image in aesthetic perception. The combination of dance music and dance movements is a harmonious whole; Of course, a good dance music is also a work that can express the theme independently when played alone. Therefore, dance music also requires visualization, personalization and distinctive national style. Fresh and lively music language, changing and orderly rhythm combination and touching emotional color all show that the relationship between dance movements is not who obeys who, but the close combination and * * * creation under the unified theme.

In addition, composition, clothing, makeup, decoration and color are all elements that constitute the appearance of dance works, and they also need to be properly used in the creative process to make them play their due role in shaping the overall artistic image.

When expressing the content of the topic, it is necessary to plan and combine the above factors of appearance regularly, which is "structure"

In the process of creating dance works, the structural process of the works begins with the dancer's choice of the theme in life. When extracting the theme of a work from the rich and messy life materials, it is necessary to sort out, select and cut it according to the needs of creation, which is the first step of the structure. To construct a theme, we should consider the configuration of characters, the development of plot, the coordination of movements, music, art and other means, the ups and downs of rhythm, the contrast and contrast of colors, the shade and rendering of interest, and organize the design according to the needs of the theme and the aesthetic characteristics of dance. Without this overall design, that is, structure, the content of dance will not be shown, and a complete dance image will not be formed.

The structural method of dance works has no fixed format, which is mainly determined by the theme and genre of dance works. For example, in lyric dance without plot, it is only a combination of changes in emotion, rhythm and atmosphere. In narrative dance or ballet with plots, the structural methods are generally beginning, development, climax and ending. However, in specific works, some use flashback structural order, starting from the end, such as Soul; Others start from the middle of the process, such as at home; Some don't use sequential narrative structure, but flashbacks, such as Goodbye! Mom. The diversity of structure also reflects the complexity and diversity of social reality and aesthetic taste, so it is impossible and unnecessary to draw a fixed frame. At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius once talked about his analysis of music and dance. He said: "happiness is also known: it is the beginning, it is like; From it, if it is pure, if it is good. " ("The Analects of Confucius Eight-legged essay") At the beginning of music and dance, coordination was required; After unfolding, it should be pure and beautiful, with clear rhythm and lingering sound. This is probably a structural method of music and dance in the Spring and Autumn Period.

The structure of dance works also summarizes some universal principles from the practice of artists in past dynasties. For example, "Crocodile Pork Belly and Leopard Tail" needs an extraordinary beginning, rich and full development and a strong ending. Yan Ying's analysis of music and dance in Zuo Zhuan's Twenty Years of Zhao Gong records that music and dance are supplemented by "clearness, grandeur, quickness, sadness, softness, speed, competition, communication and sparseness", which is actually a structural method of comparison and contrast that we still use frequently today. These experiences are worth learning and inheriting.

Finally, talk about the dialectical relationship between form and content-perfection.

"Perfection" is the traditional aesthetic standard of music and dance in China. For example, some comments on music and dance in Watching Music in Ji Zha mentioned earlier. Another example is "the son is Shao": both beautiful and good. Call it "Wu": beauty shows goodness. "This is Confucius' comments on Shao Dance and Wu Dance. In his view, Shao Dance is "perfect" because of its beautiful form and good content. The form of martial arts dance is also beautiful, but the content is not ideal, so it is "perfect and imperfect". Music and dance criticism 2500 years ago has noticed the dialectical relationship between content and form, emphasizing the perfect unity of the two.

The form of a work is always created to meet the needs of specific content. The so-called "emotions are expressed in words, haircuts are expressed in words" and "joy comes from the heart" all illustrate such a life phenomenon: there is an internal demand first, and then there is an external action. In the process of creating dance works, the design of movements, the arrangement of rhythms and the organization of structures must be centered around the content. The decisive role of this content is also reflected in the development of art forms. Historically, the motive force for the change of artistic form comes from the change of life, that is, the development and change of artistic content, and then its own form changes to meet the requirements of development. However, from the phenomenon that art forms have strong inertia (or stability), we can also see another aspect of the relationship between content and form, that is, the relative independence of form and its reaction to content. This is particularly prominent in dance works. Because the formal beauty of dance works plays an important role in the process of appreciation and aesthetic appreciation, beautiful dancing, movements and exquisite skills have high appreciation value and can satisfy people's enjoyment of beauty. This is the basis for Confucius' disapproval of the content of martial arts dance, but it cannot be said that "the more beautiful the better".

The stylized movements in traditional dance are also a manifestation of the independence of dance form. The same action (or a slight change in strength and speed) can show different characters and different contents. Sometimes the same folk dance form can also show the life content of different times. All these phenomena show the existence of the independence of dance form.

Content determines form, but in the creative practice of dance works, we can also see the reaction of form. Proper form can fully express the content and play a dynamic role in promoting the deepening of the content. We must pursue the perfect unity of artistic works in the dialectical relationship between dance content and form, and achieve "perfection".